Brave and its Brave browser and the basic attention token (BAT) creates a new token of exchange for user attention.
The CEO of Brave is Brendan Eich. He has a long track record in the technology space. He created Java Script and helped build Netscape. He’s also the guy behind the Mozilla Project and the Firefox browser.
Recently he gave a talk in from of 400 Facebooks execs about Brave. You can find video and my commentary below.
The idea came about for Brave brower because Eich believes browsing is currently broken.
It’s slow because adds can add up to 5 seconds on downloads. It’s invasive as popular media sites use up to 70 trackers to record your activity. It’s expensive, with $23 of every cell phone bill going towards the bandwidth for ads. It’s insecure, malware and ransomware grew 132% in 2016. And it’s complex as websites use multiple extensions.
Eich believes digital advertising is broken as well.
There’s been an estimated $17 billion in digital advertising fraud in 2017 alone.
It’s also complex, with too many middleman. Check out the chart below which shows all the layers between advertisers and marketers.
According to Eich digital advertising also suffers from poor reporting and attribution.
Add it all up and browsing and digital advertising are industries ripe for change.
Eich believes his ideas can solve those problems. The first step is the Brave browser. Next up will be a decentralized ad exchange, or DAX.
The DAX will run on BAT and can provide highly accurate usage data without invading privacy.
Users will be able to earn BAT by viewing ads, which they can use toward publisher’s content. Publishers will be able to use BAT to pay for advertising and reward users.
The grand vision is that ad-blockers will be a thing of the past.
I like BAT long-term, especially with Brendan Eich at the helm. But definitely not one for immediate gains.
What do you think of BAT?
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